April 2011 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Saturday, April 30, 2011

So there is a Jewish satellite channel!

And its name is...Al Jazeera! From Ya Libnan: About 100 supporters of Syria’s president, Assad, gathered in front of the Damascus offices of Al Jazeera TV. The crowd accused the satellite TV station of supporting the opposition movement in Syria. The Qatar network, according to Assad loyalists, broadcasts “lies” and “exaggerates” the nature and the volume of the anti-regime protests. “Al-Jazeera, Jewish satellite TV”, was written on several banners,...

Moroccan journalist arrested

A respected Moroccan journalist named Rachid Nini, who also runs the AlMassae newspaper, has been arrested by Moroccan authorities who were evidently unhappy with how he was exposing corruption. The charge was "compromising the safety and security of the homeland and citizens...

Ahmadinejad in political trouble? (UPDATED)

From Al Arabiya: Iran’s president was missing from a cabinet meeting on Wednesday for the second consecutive time adding to speculation that the rift with the country’s supreme leader was widening on Wednesday, agencies reported. The rift is over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s decision to dismiss Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi last week, a decision that was revoked by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr. Moslehi was present on Tuesday at a meeting...

A hundred corpses in Daraa. Where's Jimmy Carter? (updated)

From Now Lebanon: Al-Jazeera television on Friday reported that more than 100 corpses were seen on the streets of Daraa. “In Daraa, more than 100 bodies have been seen on the roads and more than 150 [people] are missing,” an eyewitness told the TV station. “Electricity is still cut and there is lack of water supplies and baby milk,” he added. The eyewitness called on humanitarian organizations to save the people of Daraa. “People from the villages...

Latest Latma (4/29/11)

A bedtime story about moral purity....

10,000 Muslim clerics: "Arab uprisings might be a Zionist plot"

From Arab News: KOTTAKKAL, Kerala: The ulema conference organized by the Samastha Kerala Jam’iyathul Ulema, a body of Islamic scholars, has warned against the possibility of the uprisings in Muslim nations into the hands of Zionists. “The Zionists and colonialists are doing everything at creating cracks in the unity of Ummah on the ethnic and nationalist lines. The Muslims should be cautious about this trap,” a resolution adopted by the three-day...

Palestinian Arab leaders disclose their strategy (NewsRealBlog)

My latest post at NewsRealBlog: The entire impetus for the Fatah-Hamas “unity” agreement is the September attempt to get “Palestine” to be internationally recognized at the UN. And today Fatah freely admits it: Senior Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi said Thursday that the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation will promote Palestinian interests ahead of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ planned statehood bid in September, making it “more important than peace...

Wire services actually published pictures of Arabs from Shechem (Nablus) setting fires at Joseph's Tomb last Sunday - a Jewish holy place that they, unbelievably, say is holy for them as well. Is this how you treat a holy place? Getty Images Reuters And here they are vandalizing the Tomb: Reuters Palestinian rioters set fire and break facilities in Joseph's...

Morning links (updated)

Hot Air: Syria gloats over US failure at UN Guardian: Syria funding St. Andrews University causes embarrassment --Is anyone embarrassed over this much larger 2008 gift to Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities from Saudi Arabia? Toameh at Hudson-NY: The New Middle East J-Wire: The Israel Embassy perspective on Hamas/Fatah reconciliation Der Spiegel: Security breach at UNESCO exposes thousands of records Ha'aretz: A previous...

The Gaza "siege" is over. Where are the celebrations?

From Ma'an: Egypt will permanently open the Rafah border crossing as part of its plans to ease the blockade on Gaza, Foreign Minister Nabil Al-Arabi said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Friday. Arabi said his country would take "important steps to help ease the blockade on Gaza in the few days to come," according to the Arabic-language satellite channel. He said Egypt would no longer accept that the Rafah border -- Gaza's only crossing that bypasses...

Video: How Arabs Repress the Press (HonestReporting Canada)

An important video: One of the best parts of Michael Totten's book was where he described exactly how Hezbollah tries to intimidate and threaten reporters - and how reporters are reluctant to report this story. There are two reasons for this, Totten says. One is that the intimidation often works. The other, simpler reason is that editors will not allow journalists to be part of the story. (p. 157) Even though readers need to know the context...

Tonight's picture of Gazans' intense pain and horrible deprivation

From AP via Daylife: A Palestinian family rides a tourist boat with a flag of the Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona, in the Mediterranean sea off the beach of Gaza City, Wednesday, April 27, 2011. I'm surprised that Gaza, with its citizens having to suffer under such gut-wrenching activities as these just to stay barely alive, didn't make the...

A small incident in Gaza

From PCHR: At approximately 20:00 on Wednesday, 27 April 2011, dozens of Palestinian civilians, including women, spontaneously gathered in the Unknown Soldier Yard, in support for reconciliation efforts between Fatah and Hamas movements declared in the Egypti... At approximately 20:30, 4 police vehicles arrived at the area, and immediately many police officers, some of whom were wearing civilian clothes, stepped down. They violently beat, insulted...

Britain's tough sanctions against Syria

From the BBC: The Foreign Office says the invitation for the Syrian ambassador in London has been withdrawn following reports that up to 400 pro-democracy protesters have been killed in Syria by security forces in recent weeks. A Foreign Office statement said: "Buckingham Palace shares the view of the Foreign Office that it is not considered appropriate for the Syrian ambassador to attend the wedding."Bashir Assad must be quaking in his boots in...

From The Sun: A MUSLIM actress has caused a storm by posing naked for Playboy. Click to see cover (NSFW) Sila Sahin has been branded a "whore" and a "western slut" after appearing topless on the cover of the German edition of the men's magazine. And Islamic fanatics have posted threatening internet messages. Sila, raised in Germany by conservative Turkish parents, says...

Dialogue with a Western Leftist - The Video

I mentioned in the Nick Cohen article I had quoted earlier today that it would be perfect for one of those XtraNormal videos that have popped up all over the web. Reader Angrybell actually made it! I like his choice of actor...

Honor killing in the West Bank: A slight twist and a light sentence

Firas Press reports that a West Bank man who murdered his daughter for "honor" has been sentenced to eight years in prison. His sentence was reduced from life imprisonment because he is older and the head of a large family, as well as (if I am interpreting it correctly) his "fury" showed that it was a real honor crime, a crime of passion and not just an ordinary murder. One twist: Not only did he kill his daughter because of his suspicion that...

Hamas instructs its media not to report on Syria

Firas Press and other Arabic news sources are claiming that Hamas is putting a news blackout on events in Syria: Reliable sources close to media officials in Hamas that they have issued strict instructions to all departments, editors of all news sites, forums, and radio TV that belongs to them not to cover or publish any news about events taking place in Syria and massacres there against unarmed citizens. The sources said that instructions have...

Those Jewish extremists trying to pray again

Official Palestinian Arab news agency WAFA reports: A group of Jewish settlers prayed at Joseph’s Tomb on Thursday, east of Nablus in the north West Bank, under the protection of Israeli forces. Local sources said the worshippers snuck into the site under the protection of Israeli soldiers, prayed until the early hours of the morning and left, with no confrontations reported. Israeli radio said forces stopped and arrested some 13 settlers while...

Tell PayPal not to support terrorism

One of the groups that is promoting a "third Palestinian intifada" has a webpage where they solicit donations - through PayPal. PayPal's policy prohibits it providing services to those "who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism." So complain to PayPal and get the funding for today's terrorist supporters stopped. Use words like terrorism, complaint, breach of contract, PayPal policies. You do not need to be a PayPal customer to do this. (h/t...

Lying Free Gaza co-founder visits my blog

I received a comment yesterday from Mary Hughes Thompson, co-founder of Free Gaza, about my post on the terrorist gun-running archbishop who spoke at the funeral of terrorist-supprting Vittorio Arrigoni: I know this gentle man. Israel tried to frame him, as it has framed thousands of innocent Palestinians. Nobody believes a word that comes out of the mouths of any Israeli leader. Archbishop Capucci is a gentle man, as my friend Vittorio was a gentle...

There has been a long battle between Iran and Arab oil states countries over the name of the gulf that they surround. Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies call it the Arabian Gulf, while Iran and most of the rest of the world call it the Persian Gulf. This conflict gets personal. Iran is hosting some sporting events in coming weeks where Arab states will compete,...

Who ya going to believe - the caption or your lying eyes?

DayLife has a series of photos from Gaza, taken by Getty Images, each with the identical caption: Christian Orthodox hold up candles lit from the 'Holy Fire' as thousands gather in the Church in Gaza City on April 24, 2011.Most of the photos look like this: A couple of dozen people at most in these photos, nto exactly "thousands." But one of the photos looks like this: Now,...

I reported a couple of months ago that one of the released "Palestine Papers" included this comment from the Negotiations Support Unit of the PLO: Recognizing the Jewish state implies recognition of a Jewish people and recognition of its right to self-determination. Those who assert this right also assert that the territory historically associated with this right of self-determination...

Dialogue with a Western Leftist (Nick Cohen)

This should probably be made into one of those XtraNormal animations.... "You say you support the Palestinians?" "Yes." "Which Palestinians?" "What do you mean 'which Palestinians'? I support all Palestinians. Their oppression by Israel is the great injustice of our time. Western hypocrites ignore racism, and use false accusations of antisemitism to stop legitimate criticism. The Zionist-controlled media label resistance 'terrorism', while...

Terrorist bishop spoke at Vittorio's funeral

At Hamas-supporter Vittorio Arrigoni's funeral in Bulciago, Italy, one of the speakers was Archbishop Hilarion Capucci of the Greek-Melchite Catholic Church. (Italian media said he is the archbishop of Jerusalem, but that appears to be wrong.) Capucci said, "For us Vittorio is a martyr, a hero and a saint, a bishop who has defended the his flock and the flock was the Palestinian people." And who is Hilarion Capucci? From Wikipedia: On August...

From JPost: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement hammered out an agreement with rival group Hamas on Wednesday, setting the stage for forming an interim government as well as fixing a date for a general election. "The consultations resulted in full understandings over all points of discussions, including setting up an interim agreement with specific...

What did you learn online today? (Music video - HuffPoMonitor)

Nice...

Why is Amnesty hosting a Hamas apologist? (Michael Weiss)

An op-ed in The Telegraph by Michael Weiss of Just Journalism: When Amnesty International sacked the brilliant feminist Gita Sahgal for pointing out the obvious human rights bloomer in her organisation’s partnership with Moazzem Begg – a man who, the Telegraph reveals today, was once claimed by the US authorities to be “a confirmed member of al-Qaeda” – the official Amnesty explanation was that Begg was a swell guy. The unofficial rationale,...

Syrian tanks headed towards Daraa; Syria headed for seat in UNHRC

Via Now Lebanon, here is a video taken this morning that says it shows tanks being transported towards Daraa, Syria, the center of the anti-government protests. Other interesting updates: A tweet from CNN's Hala Gourani: Eyewitness in #Daraa tells CNN some 35 tanks in and now around city. Says people forced to stay home bc of snipers on rooftops. Twitter user @wissamtarif tweets that many water tanks in Daraa were emptied after being...

Arabs notice Arabs treat Arabs worse than Israel does

An interesting article by a Syrian journalist in Gulf News: Funnily enough, comparing the number of Arab people killed during the wars between Israel and Arab countries with the number of Arabs killed locally, one will notice that Arab dictatorships have killed more people. Sadly enough, some Arab armies and security services have proved to be much more brutal than the Israeli army. When we compare the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza with...

PA MP calls for giving medal to murderer of Jewish worshipper

Palestine Times reports that a Hamas MP in the West Bank has called for rewarding the policeman who shot and killed Ben-Yosef Livnat as he was returning from prayers at Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus.) Sheikh Hamed Al-Betawi, MP for the "Change and Reform" party (Hamas), says that the killer should be released and he should received the Order of Pride Medal, apparently a top PA prize. He also bitterly complained that PA negotiators were prepared...

Pew poll: Egyptians want to scrap Camp David, prefer sharia law

A new Pew Research poll of Egypt shows some worrying trends. No dividend emerges for the United States from the political changes that have occurred in Egypt. Favorable ratings of the U.S. remain as low as they have been in recent years, and many Egyptians say they want a less close relationship with America. Israel fares even more poorly. By a 54%-to-36% margin, Egyptians want the peace treaty with that country annulled. The military is now almost...

Egyptian attackers again explode gas pipeline to Israel, Jordan

From JPost and BBC: Saboteurs on Wednesday blew up a pipeline running through Egypt's North Sinai near the town of El-Arish that supplies gas to Israel and Jordan, a security source told Reuters. "An unknown armed gang attacked the gas pipeline," the security source said, adding that the flow of gas to Israel and Jordan had been hit. "Authorities closed the main source of gas supplying the pipeline and are working to extinguish the fire," the...

From Al Arabiya: A Jordanian court has begun blasphemy proceedings against Danish artist Kurt Westergaard for a controversial cartoon he drew of the Prophet Mohammed. “A court in Amman began today the trial in absentia of those who insulted the Prophet, including Westergaard and Danish newspapers which published his offensive cartoon,” said Tareq Hawamdeh, lawyer for local...

EoZ gets mentioned in JPost

In a JPost article by Benjamin Weinthal: Amnesty International Ireland’s communication director, Justin Moran, criticized a popular US-based, pro-Israel blog, “Elder of Ziyon,” for pointing out ties between Arrigoni’s supporter and girlfriend, Claudia Milani – who works for Amnesty International – and her promotion of anti-Israel events. According to the Elder of Ziyon blog, Milani is the “coordinator of Israel/Occupied Territories section of Amnesty...

Last days of Passover open thread

I will not be able to blog for the last two days of the Passover holiday starting tonight. (This is reason #1765 to move to Israel....) Anyway, here's an open thread to entertain everyone until Tuesday night.... Have a Chag Sameach and happy holidays for the other weekend holiday celebrants (including, of course, Egyptians...

Interview with IDF ethicist

The Jerusalem Post has a very long, but worthwhile, interview with the man who helped draft the IDF's ethical codes, Asa Kasher. Excerpts: Our responsibility is to maintain our moral standards. That’s a very important starting point because in matters of war it can sometimes get blurred. People are always talking about factors like international law, public opinion, the Western world – that is, outside factors that we’re supposed to match up to....